


How We Know Each Other

by TheJemi



Series: Secret of Life Stuff [1]
Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Best Friends, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Growing Pains, Growing Up, Secret of Life Stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-04 01:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6635821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheJemi/pseuds/TheJemi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riley Matthews has lived in London for three years, one month and ten days.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How We Know Each Other

Riley Matthews lives in London.  Her apartment is small and has plain brick walls but a large bay window. She knows she shouldn’t, but she leaves the latch undone even though there is no fire escape.

There is a bay window with flowy white curtains, but there is no fire escape and there is no Maya.

She has an amazing job at the London offices for Random House where she gets to read and imagine all day long. She gets to help people find their dreams. What better world is there?

-

Riley Matthews has lived in London for three years, one month and ten days.

Riley Matthews hasn’t been to New York City for three years, one month and  twelve  days.

-

It’s been three years, one month and  thirteen days when she hears what she can only assume are pebbles hitting her bay window.  It’s late, well past ten o’clock, but when she looks out her second story window there is an achingly familiar blonde.

“Maya,” Riley whispers, with a grin that spreads to take up her entire face. She knows Maya can’t hear her but it’s almost enough just to see the other woman. “I’ll be right down.”

There was a time when Maya used to climb up to see her. Now, she’s going down to Maya. There’s something there, something different that scares her.

“What are you doing here?” Riley asks and sweeps Maya into her arms. They cling to each other and Riley lets the familiar scent of peaches drift into her nose as she buries her face in Maya’s hair. Her chest burns and her throat aches and it’s been  _three years_  and she doesn’t know how she let go in the first place. “I missed you, Maya. I missed you so much and I’m so-”

“Riley,” Maya tugs them apart, her eyes bright and her nose red. She knows that Maya’s close to tears as well. Riley takes a deep breath and stares at the blonde. She doesn’t even think to ask what Maya is doing there, too caught up in seeing her best friend for the first time in forever. But Maya isn’t grinning ear to ear or jumping with anticipation. Instead, she looks heartbroken.  “Riles, it’s been three years and you haven’t met my son.”

She understood, suddenly, why Shawn had stayed away all those years ago. Why she left too. It was like having someone pour ice cold water on her head and sucker punch her in the stomach all at once. She wanted to throw up. She almost wants to cry.  It’s not because she wants Lucas or Maya or what they have, but because for the first time ever she would have to share her best friend. There would be no more RileyandMaya, not in the way they had been and not in the way that Riley thought she wanted. She never wanted to be one of the people who left Maya. The problem was, she also didn’t know who she was without Maya.

People change.

People change people.

-

_“Hey Riley. Maya and the baby are coming home tomorrow. I know you’re busy, but I know she’d love to hear from you. Call us back when you can.”_

-

Nothing changes people more than making tiny, little people.

-

_“I don’t know what I’m doing Riles. I haven’t slept in a week. I don’t know how to be a mom. I need you. Call me as soon as you get this. Please, Riley.”_

-

She calls them when she lands. Maya’s still in the hospital but  _the internship is amazing Riles, go for it_  and so she does. Things are busy for everyone so their calls are sporadic.

At first it’s every other day. Then every two days. Then, she makes it a week with no calls. Then two. Then a month. Soon there are texts and messages and they spend a lot of time playing voicemail tag.

There’s social media posts and short videos of Maya singing to her son. There’s photos of Lucas covered in food and who knows what else. There are photos of Riley and Big Ben and pointing at the London Bridge.

There are so many photos, but Riley still can’t bring herself to pick up the phone.

-

Finn Matthew Friar is three years, one month and seventeen days old. He was twenty six days early and was born at 1:42 in the morning. Maya had been in labor for ten hours and twenty seven minutes. He was seventeen inches long and weighed five pounds, 3 ounces.

Riley knew all of those things.

Riley knew all of those things and two days later, when a plane left for London, she was on it.

Seven months and twelve days later, Farkle has joined her.

Seven months and twelve days later and she is still the first person to hold Finn Friar.

-

Eventually Farkle has to head back to New York but there’s an almost kiss in the airport that leaves Riley’s head spinning.

-

Lucas is still tall and Maya is still not. He’s still a gentleman and she still always has a comeback.

Now, Lucas has finger paint under his nails too and starts marshmallow fights. Now, Maya makes sure everyone is in bed on time and makes pancakes in the morning.

-

Lucas and Maya lived in a space between being Lucas and Maya and being LucasandMaya until their senior year in high school. Riley’s feelings for Lucas are long gone, but her feelings for Farkle and Maya are becoming more complicated.

Farkle is headed to MIT, to the surprise of no one.

Zay is staying in New York, but shifting to Hyde Park for culinary school to the delighted surprise of the girls.

Maya gets into the Rhode Island School of Design and she is ecstatic.

Lucas, too, stays in New York, having been accepted into Cornell’s vet program. By the time graduation rolls around, he has resolved to spend at least one weekend a month in Rhode Island and Lucas and Maya have careened into LucasandMaya before everyone is all packed and ready to go.

Riley eventually settles on Yale, but there is at least one state separating her from all of her friends and she’s not sure how to handle that.

-

She is in her last semester reviewing her notes on Frank Miller’s  _The Dark Knight_  for her course on graphic novels ( _Sandman_  became an instant favorite) when her computer beeps with her weekly Skype call from Maya.

“Hey Peaches,” Riley says holding up the graphic for Maya to see, “I have to go over this for class, and I was wondering if you had some thought about the use of light? You know, artistic stuff - ”

“Hey Pumpkin, I gotta tell you something.”

Things change.

-

“Hi,” Riley says, softly.

“Hi,” Finn tells her.

Finn is all the good parts of Maya and Lucas, and even if he’s too young for anyone else to see it, Riley does. He’s got sandy hair that sticks up a bit in the front and big blue, blue eyes and a wide, happy smile. There’s none of Maya’s fear but all of her love. There’s none of Lucas’s anger and all of his devotion.

“Do you know who I am?” She asks with a quick look at Maya.

“Aunt Riley,” he says in his tiny toddler voice and launches himself into her arms.

“That’s right,” Riley says as she grips him to her. “I’m your Aunt Riley and I’m never leaving you again.”

-

She puts in a transfer to come back to New York.

She remembers what it was like thinking that someone so important to her father didn’t like her.

She remembers the look on Maya’s face after seeing her father, only to have him leave again.

She remembers Farkle begging her to come back.

She remembers strained updates from Lucas on Maya and Finn’s health.

She remembers these and refuses to be someone who walks out on her friends.

So, she puts in a transfer and heads back home, because after three years home is still where her friends are.

Maya is there with a sign with her name and a purple cat. There’s a rush between them and then there’s nothing but arms and hugs and squeezes and tears and she know she’s never letting go of Maya again. 

“Where’s Lucas?”

“He’s with Finn.  Thought I needed to do this myself,” Maya says with a quirk of her lips. Lucas has always understood them both better than either of them thought he did.

“Did you?”

“I did. Sort of,” she acknowledges with a tip of her head. “I needed to thank you for coming back. I thought I wanted to yell at you for leaving. But you’re the only one who came back.”

“I shouldn’t have left.”

“You shouldn’t have. But you did. I told you to. So that’s on me.”

“Where does that leave us?” She’s afraid. She's afraid of the hurt and betrayal that swims between them, even now. Maya had told her to leave, but she had chosen to listen.

“With three years of gossip to catch up on,” Maya says and places a kiss to Riley’s knuckles, where their friendship right still sits. “Bay window?”

“Bay window,” Riley agrees, pressing a kiss to Maya’s ring as well.

“Fantastic. I want to hear all about London boys. What? I have a baby, I’m not dead. Jeez.”

People change, but sometimes they don’t.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know where this came from. It's a bit scattered but I kind of like it that way, so sorry if it was hard to follow. Relationships are complicated because feelings are complicated, so I hope I got them right. Title comes from Eric's Song by Vienna Teng. Tell me what you think!


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